Wingman
by DARWIN51
Summary: Series of oneshot Neric proposals, assisted by Deeks
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: voted DAR's #1 shortest story ever by 9 out of 10 doctors.**

"Wingman?" Eric asked.

"You got it." Deeks agreed, taking the small box from Eric. "Good luck, buddy." Deeks patted his shoulder.

LATER IN THE TECH ROOM

The team stood in the tech room while Eric and Nell briefed them. "Hey, Eric, nice Christmas lights." Kensi commented.

"Yeah, it almost makes up for having to work on Christmas day." Sam said sarcastically.

"I actually don't mind it." Callen said directly to Sam.

"Yeah? That's cause you have no friends." Sam said back.

"Gentlemen, no arguing, it's Christmas." Hetty appeared behind them, as if by magic.

"Whoa!" Deeks jumped back in surprise. "Think we could get Eric to hook up some sort of tracking system to her?" Deeks whispered to Kensi. "Shh." Kensi hushed him. "Ya know, like a GPS or something?" "Shh!"

"Mister Beal, Miss Jones, I assume you have gotten into their system, yes?" Hetty asked, referring to the Camp Boys, a street gang notorious for taking out ex Navy SEALs.

"Uh, not yet, Hetty. I'm sending the encryption codes to Nell right now." Eric said."

"Received…" Nell narrated. "And…running through the code-breaking system. Wow, this one's pretty short. Must not have been big on passwords, huh?"

Deeks slipped the box to Eric.

"Oh! That was fast." The screen read

**TURN AROUND**

In big black letters. Nell slowly turned around, a bit confused.

Eric hit a button on the remote and all the lights in the room went down. Monitors and boards off, the glow of the table disappeared, too. All that remained was the twinkling glow of the Christmas lights that bordered the ceiling.

Eric got down on one knee. Nell put her hands over her mouth as if something might happen if she didn't. The team was in shock. No one but Deeks had known, although no one was really sure what went on in Hetty's mind.

"Nell Jones…" Eric started. "Yes? Nell squeaked, barely audible. Eric gave a light chuckle. He opened the box, and a small light inside turned on, showing off the small but beautiful infinity-symbol shaped diamond and the brass band, making the gem sparkle. Kensi and Nell gasped simultaneously.

Eric's smile brightened, almost invisible behind the light.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes yes yes, a thousand times yes!"

Eric's eyes twinkled and he stood up and threw his arms around her, forgetting about the ring.

"Yeah!" Deeks clapped, soon the others joined in.

Eric and Nell pulled apart for just a second for Eric to slip the ring on her finger. They pulled back together and kissed.

Deeks started playing a song on his ipod, "The show goes on" instrumental version, which actually fit the mood quite nicely. "Really, Deeks?" Kensi asked.

"I honestly did not see that coming." Callen said.

"Me either." Sam said.

Deeks cranked the music a little louder, and everyone turned to him. "Really, Deeks?" Eric asked. Deeks cranked the music louder still.

**A/N:REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! My goal: to broaden the Neric archive. Let me know if you think I should continue!**


	2. Of Smoothies and Rings

Morning. Wake up. Smack alarm clock. Unplug alarm clock. Write note to self: buy new alarm clock. Shower. Breakfast. Hair. Teeth. Pick up coffee…spill coffee. Curse like a sailor.

Nell sighed. She was almost to work, now she had to go back and change. She drove all the way back to her apartment and made her way to the bedroom to change.

SLAM!

"Fuck!"

Nell cried out in pain. In her rush to the bedroom she tripped over a piece of wood in her bedroom doorway and hit her jaw on the doorknob. The wood was there to cover up an architectural mistake. Right in her doorway, 3 steps led down to virtually nowhere. Just 2 inches of carpet at the bottom, then three stairs leading back up. The downstairs neighbors had evidence of this on their ceiling.

She was now bleeding on the floor. She let out a string of curst words, but for reasons (the rating of this story) I will omit the bad words and just tell you what she said, cuss words excluded: "Late work stupid floor towel." Please note that I left out three whole sentences.

She made her way to the closet, holding her jaw tightly, and grabbed a towel. Now holding the towel to her chin, she got to her car, and drove to the hospital, but not before getting stuck in traffic. She checked her watch. Now 30 minutes late for work. Hetty would be pissed.

Upon arriving in the emergency room, Nell realized that she would never get seen by a doctor, and she would be better off giving herself stitches with barbed wire. The woman next to her had a baby that _would not shut up_. She guessed they were here for the baby's severe condition of chronic annoying.

"Excuse me, Miss?" The woman with the baby called to a nurse. "I'm sorry ma'm, I don't have any time, we are very busy." The nurse replied.

"How much longer will this take? My baby is sick!"

"I'm sorry ma'm, the nursing home had some very old fish the other night, we have 122 stomachs to pump."

_Crap._ Nell thought. She checked her watch. Now 2 hours late to work.

Finally, half an hour later, a nurse walked up to her. "Oops, sorry, wrong way." And she started to walk away. "What? You have got to be kidding me. I am bleeding. From my _head. _A lot." Nell said, impatient.

"Head injuries always look worse than they actually are. I assure you, you'll be fine."

"No! But you see, I'm late…" But the nurse was gone.

_Head injuries also kill more than bad fish._

_Okay, screw this._ Nell got up and went out into the main ER hallway, and made the mistake of looking right.

Old, white haired men had the brownish orangey contents of their stomachs pumped into bags while they coughed and sputtered. All Nell remembered after that was the ceiling.

"She's coming to."

"'Bout time. This one's been out a good hour and a half."

_Damnit, I'm late!_ Nell sat up.

"Whoa whoa whoa, take it easy there, you lost a lot of blood. Here, have some juice and a cookie to regain your blood sugar."

_What the HELL? They refuse to help me when I'm injured, leave me to pass out on the floor, make me 3 and a half hours late for a job that kills people for less, then offer me a fucking COOKIE?_

"Otay." Nell accepted the cookie.

"Wfy cnn Ah tafk?" Nell asked, then felt where she injured her jaw, but she didn't feel. _Great. I'm still numb._

"It'll wear off in a few hours. You got 7 stitches, what happened?"

_Dumbass, I can't TALK!_

"Uh, you know what? We'll call you tomorrow."

Nell gave a thumbs-up.

After signing crap, she left for work, again.

Now 4 hours late, she walked into OSP with a coffee stained bloody shirt and a large bandage on her face. She threw her bag to the ground, and heard her phone crack in the bottom. _Perfect._

"Morning, Princess." Eric greeted sarcastically.

"I don't want to talk." She grumbled.

"Never?"

"Not right now."

"Will you want to talk later, maybe…over dinner?"

"…Really?"

"Yes, really."

"…No. Not when I look like this."

"Then at my house, we can order out."

"No."

"What if I say…I can hide that…whatever is on your face…and no one will ever notice."

"No you can't" Nell was skeptical.

"Wanna bet?"

Nell had no idea how he could possibly do that, but she was interested.

"Fine. You can _try_ and cover up my stitches. But no bet."

"Stitches? What happened?" He asked with concern.

"Oh. I fell. On my doorknob."

Eric snorted.

"Hey! That's not funny! I got 7 stitches!"

"When? Just now? Only you could manage to severely harm yourself with a doorknob."

"Okay, that _was _funny." Nell said, cracking a smile. "And yes, just this morning."

"Mister Beale, back to work." Hetty appeared out of virtually nowhere. "And good morning to you, Miss Jones. You're late."

"Sorry, Hetty." Nell didn't make any excuses.

"Back to work." Hetty repeated.

"Where's the team?" Nell asked.

"Lunch break." Eric said absently, staring at the screen.

"There's no case today, but ask Mister Beale for some files that need to be transferred to digital format then burn the papers." Hetty said.

Eric handed Nell a stack of manila folders and Nell got right to work.

Satisfied that her techies were working hard, Hetty left OPS.

"Hey guys. Oh, Nell, you're here." Sam entered OPS and the rest of the team followed.

"Sorry, can't talk." Eric said.

"We're busy." Nell finished.

"Too busy for…_this?"_ Deeks reached under a table and pushed a button. The screen on the wall lit up and the familiar tune of Mario Kart came on.

"Deeks! How did you know about that?" Nell stood up in outrage.

"Oh c'mon. You guys are in here for hours after work almost every day. It's either you were playing games somehow, or…having some other sort of…_fun_."

"Deeks!" Kensi said slapping his shoulder.

"Whatever. Let's play." Sam said, grabbing a remote from a drawer.

"Wha- how did you-?" Eric asked.

"Just a lucky guess." Sam said ingenuously. Deeks passed out the Wii controllers to Sam, Eric, and Nell, then accosted the trio and prepared himself for the race.

"Hey! No fair Sam, you can't do that, we're on the same team!" Deeks raged.

"No we're not!" Sam laughed. "I'm on Nell's team, you're with Eric."

"Hey hey hey! How'd you get a rocket in first place?" Deeks asked.

Nell giggled.

"Whoa. Did you hack? That's not funny. Excuse me, Kensi? Call a penalty. Unsportsmanlike hacking. Two minutes in the box."

"I didn't see anything." Kensi replied slyly. Sam laughed then reached across the table to fist-bump Nell.

"I will not stand for this." Deeks muttered. He jumped up on the table and shouted: "Release the Kraken!" with a wonderful accent, then released his red shell at Sam. "Payback's a BEEYICH!"

Sam glared at him and stole his remote, then drove him into the water.

"Hey! You lookin' to fight, huh big guy?" Deeks challenged, jumping from foot to foot. Sam took a step towards Deeks, which sent Deeks sprinting across OPS.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Whoa man, I'm so sorry." Deeks said.

Eric paused the game and everyone followed where Deeks had gone. They found Deeks, a ginger, and a chair sprawled on the ground and put the pieces together quickly.

"Naw, man. It's okay. I just always wanted to say that." The ginger said. "Oh, guys, this is Shea, he works here also, but under a different operation." Nell explained. "And…he's blind." Eric added.

Shea and Deeks got up. "So you guys know each other well?" Kensi asked. "Yeah, we're close. One big happy family." Shea said sarcastically, putting his arm around Nell.

"Ohh, Eric, watch out." Kensi teased.

"No, no." Shea, Nell, and Eric said almost at the exact same time, followed by awkward laughter. "I have a boyfriend." Shea said.

"Oh…" Kensi said. "You're…"

"Yes, I'm gay. Do you have a problem with that?" Shea asked, his fist's balling up at this sides. "Shea, it's okay." Nell whispered.

"Naw, we're cool with it." Sam said. "yeah." The team echoed.

"Kay, good, 'cause I been takin' a lot of shit about it lately." Shea said angrily. "I mean, a blind gay ginger. Just my luck, huh?" he snorted. "I was just leaving anyways. Great meeting you guys, come by my station and visit sometime, I hardly ever get visitors, and trust me, Annie over here, not that much fun to talk to." Shea referred to his partner. He gave Nell a quick hug and he and Eric exchanged slaps on the back. Shea grabbed his bag and walked out.

"What? No walking stick or anything?" Kensi asked, referring to Shea not having anything to help him see.

"Abu's downstairs." Nell said.

"Abu?"

"No dogs in OPS." Nell and Eric recited.

After the team split up, Eric and Nell took their separate cars over to Nell's apartment, after Eric picked up something from his house.

"Okay, show me what makeup you have." Eric instructed. Nell opened a bathroom drawer and took out 3 items. "What? I prefer a natural look." She defended. "Okayy, yeah, I knew we would need this." Eric produced a medium briefcase looking object, flicked the switches, and opened it up. It contained the largest selection of makeup Nell had ever seen outside of the store. "I don't know what to say." Nell said honestly. "Nell! I'm not gay, I'm dating you! I was in Drama Club for all 4 years of high school. I just happened to be best in the makeup department." Nell just laughed at him.

"Fine. Be that way." Eric said. He reached up to her face to remove the bandage. Once he got a grip on the corner, he slowly peeled it away, causing Nell to wince or hiss occasionally. Once he got the bandage off, he took a look at the stitches and wondered what he was going to do to cover it up.

"That's gross." He commented.

"Hey! That's not nice. Lemme see." She turned her head to the mirror. "Ew, it is gross."

Eric got a washcloth and wet it with cool water. Once her face was clean and dry to work on, Eric did not hesitate. "Okay so I'll put on a little bandage over the stitches so nothing gets infected. I'll use some of this first, that gives it a base, and then I can match your skin tone to one of these and we'll do a layer of that, then finish with some of this." He said, messing around with a bunch of stuff in the case.

"Uh, what?"

"Just trust me." Eric said. Nell was perched on her bathroom counter and Eric eagerly began.

"Done."

"Done?"

"Yeah. Done. Look!"

Nell turned around and looked in the mirror. What was once ugly black stitches was now just a small jagged lump on her face, only noticeable from very close. "Wow Eric it's amazing!"

"I know! C'mon, we have dinner to get to. I am so hungry."

Nell agreed with him and they left.

"Wow. Nina's Ice Cream Parlor?" Nell asked when Eric pulled into the parking space.

"You said you didn't want anything fancy."

"Yeah, that's true. And, as you know, I've had pretty much the worst day _ever._ So this is good, fancy would definitely be bad."

"Good."

They walked in, and immediately the team waved them over. Kensi, Deeks, Sam, and Callen sat at a table with two empty chairs.

"Hey guys!" Deeks greeted. They went over to the table and said their hellos, then went up to order. They both ordered smoothies, and while they were waiting for the smoothies to be prepared, Nell gave Eric a look.

"You didn't tell me they were gonna be here!"

"I didn't know either." Eric said with a smile that said he did.

"Shut up you knew." Nell gently smiled slapped his arm. "But why?"

"Because. I don't know. You said you had a pretty bad day. I want to do everything I can to make it better."

"…you are so sweet. I love you." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He cupped her face where the stitches were and gently whispered back "Love you too."

"Smoothies are ready." A pimply teenager slid their smoothies across the counter. Eric paid the boy and they took their smoothies back to the table.

After a few minutes of friendly chatting, Eric made his move. He tapped Kensi's foot under the table and tugged his earlobe twice when she looked up. She gave a short nod and wiped a wet napkin across her eye.

"Oh, shoot, I think I just smudged my eyeliner. Ugh. Nell, come with me to the bathroom to fix it up?" She asked.

"Uh, sure. I guess." Nell said, beginning to suspect something.

The two girls got up and left the table for the bathroom.

"Why did you need me to hold onto this again? You couldn't just have it in your pocket?" Deeks handed Eric the small silver ring from his pocket.

"She totally would have felt it in my pocket."

Deeks gave a low whistle. "What's she doin' feeling down there, it's only 8 o'clock."

"Hey Deeks, lay off." Sam said.

"Don't worry Eric, he's just jealous 'cause he isn't getting any."

"OOhhhhh. That hurt. You know, that really hurt." Deeks said.

"Whatever let's just hurry before they get back." Eric said. He slipped the small ring into Nell's drink then replaced the lid.

A few minutes later the girls came back with Kensi's makeup fixed.

Everyone sat and drank for a while, the guys watching the game up on the tv and the girls chatting quietly.

"No no no, PASS! MAKE THE FREAKING PASS!"

"COME ON! Idiot!" The boys screamed at the tv, as if it could hear them.

Since the boys were practically screaming in her ears, Nell decided it would be a good time to get up and throw out her drink. Kensi paid no attention as Nell dumped her drink in the trash can.

When the men had calmed down, and were sitting at the table again like somewhat civilized human beings, Eric noticed something.

"Nell, where's your drink?"

"I finished it. I threw it out."

"WHAT!" Eric ran to the garbage can and tore off the lid.

"ERIC! What in God's name are you DOING!" Nell shouted in horror.

Giving up finding her cup on the surface, Eric full out dove into the garbage can head first, until only his legs stuck up in the air.

"Oh my GOD!" Nell screamed.

The garbage can tipped sideways and Eric and everything in it spilled all over the floor.

The entire restaurant was standing now to see what the commotion was all about.

"Sir, SIR! GET OUT OF THE GARBAGE CAN!" An employee was yelling at Eric, holding a very dangerous looking broom. He started hitting at the cups around Eric to get him out, then started actually hitting Eric with the broom.

"Whoa whoa WHOA! Stop it! You can't hit my boyfriend! STOP!" She screeched.

Eric pulled himself out of the garbage. He was covered in smoothie practically from head to toe, and it dripped down his face, but he triumphantly held up a ring. He fell to one knee in front of Nell.

"Look, I know you've had a bad day. And this is going to be something we all laugh about later. Nell, I just love you so much. I can't think of my life without you. And, heh, I know I look ridiculous. So I'm going to get to my point. Nell, marry me?"

Nell had the most shocked expression on her face. The building had fallen silent. The man with the broom stopped.

"Y-Yes! Yes Eric yes!"

Eric let out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding, spewing smoothie.

He stood up and she ran into his arms. She didn't care if she was covered in smoothie.

"Eric, this has been the best day _ever_."


	3. 20 Pictures

**Okay, I said this would be a oneshot but I couldn't resist the Neric fluff.**

"Deeks, _tell_ me you got those pictures developed." Eric asked desperately.

"I did, finally."

"Good. I swear, if you had forgotten again-"

"Hey, chill out. You're about to propose. This is big. A game changer. Do this." Deeks jumped up and down a few times, his arms flailing and head bobbing.

"No. I am _not_ doing that."

"C'mon. It really helps!"

"No."

"Just once. I promise it will work."

"Fine." Eric did the little dance, rolling his eyes.

"No no no! You gotta have _passion_. Do it again."

Eric did the dance well this time, and it worked so well he started making silly noises. Deeks soon joined in, and their silly sounds echoed through the gym.

"Back to work, boys." Hetty appeared in the doorway.

They both jumped in surprise. Hetty left and Eric glared at Deeks, snatching the pictures."What did I tell ya?" Deeks called after him as Eric walked away. Deeks chuckled and made his way out of the gym too. After all, this was his friend's big moment.

"Hey Nell." Eric strolled into OSP. "Oh. hey." Nell replied, obviously distracted. It was the end of the day and Nell was just finishing up her report. Today's case had tested Sam and Callen's teamwork and Kensi had nearly been kidnapped. Of course, they wouldn't have gotten very far with her though.

"I have something to show you." Eric said. Nell looked up, curiosity taking over. "What is it?"

"Follow me"

Eric said and just walked out of the room. "Wait!" Nell called but he didn't, so she ran after him. "Where are you going?" Nell asked when she caught up with him, but he kept going without a word. He opened a door and went into the basement, Nell close behind. "Eric, if this is some kind of game…" She paused and thought to herself, _being all mysterious though, that's kinda sexy._ She smiled to herself then remembered to keep following him. The basement was dark, and Eric kept ducking under things and stepping over others and dodging spider webs, and it all reminded Nell of the Lion King scene when grown up Simba follows Raffiki to the pond.

Finally, Eric came to a door, spun around and stopped so fast that Nell bumped into him. He opened the door to an even darker room and led Nell inside. He closed the door behind him and they couldn't see anything.

"Remember when I taught you sign language?" Eric whispered. "Yeah about that I may have forgotten a little but-" Nell was cut off by a light going on. A box on the wall next to her lit up, and there were four pictures of her and Eric on it. _It's a darkroom, _Nell realized. "Look _haard_" Eric said with an accent, furthering Nell's Lion King referenced mind. Eric grinned, knowing that she got the reference.

Nell leaned closer to the pictures, and noticed that in each one, Eric's hand was making a weird random shape. _Letters!_ "W-I-L… uh, another L?" Nell asked "mhmm." Eric mumbled.

Suddenly, the box next to that one lit up. Three more pictures of Eric and Nell together. Three more letters. "Y-O-" Nell squinted. "…W?" "U" Eric corrected. "Oh, 'you'. 'Will you'" Nell said. Eric lit the third box. "M-A- Oh my god, Eric." Nell whispered. Eric couldn't help it, a huge grin spread across his face. "Keep going" he whispered. "Will you marry" Eric lit the fourth box.

"me" Nell whispered. The next box lit up, spelling N-E-L-L. He lit one more box, which showed just him down on one knee, with a closed jewelry box.

Eric slowly knelt down, keeping his head bent, not making eye contact. He gently opened the box in one hand then raised his head and smiled at her. Nell couldn't say anything, she only nodded her head so much that she looked like a bobblehead. Eric laughed and stood up, they wrapped their arms around each other, Eric reached behind Nell and flipped one more switch, to light up one more box, to reveal one more picture. Nell turned and saw a picture of them kissing on the beach, taken by Kensi. Nell laughed happily and kissed Eric back. And that completed it, to make exactly twenty pictures.

**Okay, challenge: Tell me of a cool creative proposal that you or someone you know actually did, and I'll try to make a chapter out of it.**


End file.
